Green power at DHS

Congress requires Homeland Security's data center to go green.

By Jill R. Aitoro, NextGov October 19, 2009

In the funding bill for the Homeland Security Dept. that it passed Oct. 15, the House restricted more than half of the nearly $83 million budget for a massive data center until DHS develops ways ensure there is enough power to sustain operations.

The fiscal 2010 Homeland Security appropriations bill requires the department to spend $38.5 million to upgrade the power capabilities at the National Center for Critical Information Processing and Storage, known as Data Center One and based at NASA’s Stennis Space Center, near the Gulf Coast in Mississippi.

Homeland Security cannot spend the remaining $45 million on building out the data center, which will provide information processing for the entire department, until DHS officials can make certain the data center has enough power and uses green technologies to reduce demand.

Read the full story.